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The Indian Corn 

By Ex-Gov. Richard J. Oglesby 



The Indian Corn 



Presented to 



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Richard J. Oglesby 
1893 



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The 

Indian Corn 

Impromptu Speech 

of 

Ex-Gov. Richard J. Oglesby 

Made at the 

Fellowship Club at Chicago, 

September 9th, 1894, o" 

the occasion of the 

Harvest Home 

Festival 







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FOREWORD 

/VT a meeting of the Fellow- 
-ir\. ship Club of Chicago, 
September 9th, 1894, the late 
Richard J. Oglesby, former 
Governor of Illinois, was a 
guest. He was called upon by 
the Toastmaster, Franklin H. 
Head, to respond to the toast, 
"What I know about Farm- 
ing." Governor Oglesby sat 
at the speakers' table between 
the famous actor, Joseph Jeffer- 
son, and the well-known au- 
thor, A. Conan Doyle, with 
whom he was in earnest con- 
versation. The Governor arose 
slowly and was seemingly wait- 
ing for an inspiration. He 
looked deliberately upon the 
harvest decorations of the room 
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THE corn! the corn! the 
corn ! that in its first be- 
ginning and in its growth has 
furnished aptest illustration of 
the tragic announcement of the 
chiefest hope of man. If he 
die he shall surely live again. 
Planted in the friendly but 
sombre bosom of mother earth, 
it dies. Yea, it dies the sec- 
ond death, surrendering up 
each trace of form and earthly 
shape until the outward tide 
is stopped by the reacting vi- 
tal germ which, breaking all 
the bonds and cerements of its 
sad decline, comes bounding, 
laughing into life and light, 
the fittest of all the symbols 
that make certain promise of 
the fate of man. And so it 
died, and then it lived again. 
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"And so my people died. By 
some unknown, uncertain and 
unfriendly fate, I found myself 
making my first journey into 
life from conditions as lowly as 
those surrounding that awaken- 
ing, dying, living infant germ. 
It was in those days when I, a 
simple boy, had wandered from 
Indiana to Springfield, that I 
there met the father of this 
good man — Joseph Jefferson — 
whose kind and gentle words to 
me were as water to a thirsty 
soul — as the shadow of a rock 
to a weary man. I loved his 
father then ; I love the son now. 
Two full generations have been 
taught by his gentleness, and 
smiles and tears have quickly 
answered to the command of 
his artistic mind. Long may he 
live to make us laugh and cry, 

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and cry and laugh by turns, as 
he may choose to move us. 

I "But now again my mind 
turns to the glorious corn. See 
it — look on its ripening, wav- 
ing field. See how it wears a 
crown, prouder than monarch 
ever wore; sometimes jauntily, 
and sometimes, after the storm, 
the dignified survivors of the 
tempest seem to view a field 
of slaughter and to pity a fal- 
len foe. And see the pendent 
caskets of the corn filled with 
the wine of life, and see the 
silken fringes that set a form 
for fashion and for art. 

"And now the evening 
comes, and something of a time 
to rest and listen. The scud- 
ding clouds conceal the half and 
then reveal the whole of the 

A moon-lit beauty of the night; 
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and then the gentle winds make 
heavenly harmonies on a thou- 
sand thousand harps that hang D 
upon the borders and the edges 
and the middle of the field of 
ripening corn, until my very 
heart seems to beat responsive 
to the rising and the falling 
of the long, melodious refrain. 
The melancholy clouds some- 
times make shadows on the field 
and hide its aureate wealth; 
and now they move, and slowly 
into sight there comes the gold- 
en glow of promise for an indus- 
trious land. 

"Glorious corn that, more 
than all the sisters of the field, 
wears tropic garments. Nor on 
the shore of Nilus nor of Ind 
does nature dress her forms 
more splendidly. My God ! to 
live again that time, when for 
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me half the world was good, 
the other half unknown. 

"And now again the corn ! 
that in its kernel holds the 
strength that shall (in the body 
of the man refreshed) subdue 
the forest and compel response 
from every stubborn field ; or, 
shining in the eye of beauty, 
make blossoms of her cheeks 
and jewels of her lips, and thus 
make for man the greatest in- 
spiration to well doing, the 
hope of companionship of that 
sacred, warm and well-embod- 
ied soul, a woman. 

"Aye, the corn, the roya 
corn, within whose yellow 
heart there is of health and 
strength for all the nations! 
The corn triumphant! That 
with the aid of man hath made 
victorious procession across the 

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tufted plain and laid foundation 
for the social excellence that 
is and is to be. This glorious 
plant, transmuted by the alche- 
my of God, sustains the warrior 
in battle, the poet in song, and 
strengthens everywhere the 
thousand arms that work the 
purposes of life. Oh! that I 
had the voice of song or skill 
to translate into tones the har- 
monies, the symphonies, and 
oratorios that roll across my 
soul when, standing, sometimes 
by day and sometimes by night, 
upon the borders of this verdant 
sea, I note a world of promise; 
and then before one-half the 
year is gone I view its full fru- 
ition and see its heaped gold 
await the end of man. 

"Majestic, fruitful, wondrous 
plant! Thou greatest among 

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the manifestations of the 
dom and the love of God 
{ may be seen in all the 
or upon the hillsides, or in 
valleys." 



WIS- 




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IN the beauty of his diction 
and the power of his elo- 
quence, Governor Oglesby, 
when fully aroused, had few 
equals. It is said that at the 
time the speech was made, so 
great was the impression pro- 
duced that many of the audi- 
ence rose to their feet and 
remained standing until it was 
finished. 

Charles G. Dawes. 



Chicago, Illinois, 
November i, 1905 




"xi/" 



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RICHARD J. OGLESBY'S 
. toast to Indian corn on 
receiving a beautiful cut glass 
punch bowl and twenty-four 
glasses from his staff at Camp 
Lincoln, August, i 




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THE corn holds inspiration 
from the first sunborn blade 
to its fluid quintessence in that 
exquisite bowl. How I wish 
my dear wife might be here to 
share the delight that your 
beautiful present gives me. I 
wooed my wife amidst the glo- 
ries of the ripening cornfields. 
Bachelors," (turning to two 
unmarried members of his staflT) 
"get married. Matrimony is 
a blessed institution. Wife and 
children are ties to futurity, and 
they tangle you all up so with 
God's arrangements that you 
cannot get rid of Him, even if 
you would." 



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PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY 
AND SONS COMPANY AT THE 
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. 



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